The preferred embodiments relate to insulated coolers and more particularly to an insulated cooler for alternatively storing hunting game, such as in substantially or fully whole form, while alternatively functioning to store items comparable to that of an ordinary cooler.
Hunting, particularly in the South or at the beginning of the season when temperatures are too high to allow for outdoor hanging, necessitates the storage of the animal in a way that maintains the integrity of the meat. One of the main reasons hunters require temporary cold storage of the whole game animal, such as deer, is transportation of the game animal. If the game is being transported for a significant amount of time in an inadequate ambient temperature then the meat could spoil without adequate temporary cold storage. Hunters transport the game to many places for various reasons and often for very long distances. Many hunters prefer to transport their game animal whole from the hunting area to the area where they live in order to get the meat processed close to home. Others would like to transport the game animal from a storage facility to a meat processor near their home. This creates a problem if they live hours from the hunting area so this necessitates temporary cold storage for the animal using the deer cooler. Many hunters lack either the desire, the physical ability, or else the knowledge to remove the skin and properly dismember the game animal. They could transport the animal whole to a local processor for a relatively short distance without the deer cooler and then pick up the processed meat later and utilize a food and beverage cooler to transport the meat home. This creates a large problem. Now the hunter is required to make an unnecessary and additional trip back to this remote hunting area to pick up their meat weeks later once the processor has finished. This would be extremely inconvenient since so many hunters hunt long distances away from home and would have to spend hours traveling to pick up the processed meat. For other hunters there is a requirement to transport the game animal to a cold storage facility which may be a great distance from the remote area where they camp and hunt.
Current practical implementations, as well as published patent documents, that attempt to address these issues include hard-shelled (e.g., plastic) coolers and soft (e.g., cloth) coolers.
Current hard coolers generally available to a hunter are not constructed to allow the storage of an animal without cutting up the carcass which is difficult and time consuming to perform in a remote deer camp. Hunters currently are being inconvenienced with the requirement to remove the skin and partially dismember/process the animal in the field in order to fit the meat in manageably sized and affordable insulated food and beverage coolers. Doing all this requires a significant amount of work and time and more importantly is inconvenient to the hunter. Certain hard coolers shown in patent documents are likely also to be of questionable marketability as successful existence of such coolers in the marketplace has not been found, and certain of such coolers require considerable work on the game animal prior to storage.
Soft material coolers specifically for deer are available, but they may have many creases, zippers, and folds, etc. where blood and animal hair may accumulate in a single usage, and which could further accumulate, spoil, or foul after multiple uses. Thus, such coolers are cumbersome to handle, difficult to clean, and leak in the hunter's vehicle. It is believed that many, if not most, hunters will not purchase the soft cooler since it also has only one very specific use. Certain soft coolers shown in patent documents are likely also to be expensive or of questionable longevity in their function.
Either of the above approaches can be expensive, and if the hunter has other cold-storage needs then they may be required to purchase one cooler for the hunting game and another for their other needs. The average hunter either cannot afford or would not be willing to spend much more than a few hundred dollars on items like these.
The preferred embodiments seek to improve upon the above drawbacks, as further explored below.